Is the California Drought Your fault?

Is the drought in California all your fault? The article below pushes in that direction. A third of America’s vegetables (and a lot of the veggies consumed in Canada) come from California. So if you eat California produce (or drink California wine!) you’re indirectly using California water. Of course, “using” isn’t quite right, since a lot of the water “used” flows back into the ground — so it’s not like all the water disappears. >>>

Link: Your Contribution to the California Drought (NY Times)

California farmers produce more than a third of the nation’s vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts. To do that, they use nearly 80 percent of all the water consumed in the state. It is the most stubborn part of the crisis: To fundamentally alter how much water the state uses, all Americans may have to give something up….

So ask yourself this: should you stop buying produce and wine from California? Would that help? Would it help if we all did that? Or would doing that be like boycotting clothes made in Bangladesh? In other words, would it just be a way of denying people jobs, without making their lives any better in the process?

Brought to you by: